“How should I define my life?”
“The sum of my memories?”
“Memories?”
“The record of my experiences.”
“So memories are the impressions that remain from my experiences…and they define my life.”
“My existence is measured by my experiences, and experiences are recorded as memories. That is the definition of my life.”
“Would I have had a life if I had no memories? What of those memories that became lost, what of those that I have distorted and embellished? What of those that were created apart from my reality?”
“If I understand what I am saying to myself … I can define my life by experiences that I can remember, or chose to remember, including those experiences enhanced or imagined.”
“That works for me…”
“Pardon me, while I create some more memories to define my life. In addition to choices and their attendant consequences ( those “random” experiences); it isn’t too late to “modify” some memories and to fantasize some experiences that I haven’t actually had.”
“I am beginning to like this definition of life…of my life.”
“It can be exactly as I choose it to be – the result of my conscious choices and their consequences, foreseen or not – but more importantly, I get to be the author of my life, defining it with all the license and creativity at my disposal.
“Perhaps, that is why I should leave a written record of my life? Without a record of my memories – memories that I choose – someone else might define my life…as I actually lived it.”